We have returned from a weekend in the Champagne region. If you have deep pockets and want to buy bottles of the famous sparkling, no worries: the many champagne houses are there to welcome you! Every little town seems to consist of a church, a bakery, and dozens of champagne houses. As we didn’t intend to ruin ourselves and come back with boxes of the precious liquid, we therefore decided to visit one of the great houses that offer guided tours of their cellars and a small tasting to finish on a joyful note! We opted for the house Taittinger in Reims which offers visits without having to make reservations.

Les caves de la maison Taittinger qui sont ouvertes au public sont celles où leur champagne de grand cru est vieilli. Ces caves de craie, à une quinzaine de mètres de profondeur, ont été creusées à partir de l’époque gallo-romaine. Une abbaye bénédictine existait bien avant que Taittinger commence à y stocker son champagne. / The cellars of the Taittinger house that are open to the public are those where their champagne “grand cru” is aged. These chalk cellars, about fifteen meters deep, were dug from the Gallo-Roman period. A Benedictine abbey existed long before Taittinger began to store its champagne.Le principe de base du champagne est la double fermentation. La seconde fermentation, en bouteille, crée les bulles que nous aimons tant. Ce processus occasionne cependant un dépôt qu’il faudra retirer avant la consommation. C’est pour cela que les bouteilles se retrouvent inversées pendant un certain temps pour faciliter le retrait des dépôts. / The basic principle of champagne is a double fermentation. The second fermentation happens in the bottle, creating the bubbles we love so much. However, this process causes a deposit that will have to be removed before consumption. This is why the bottles are inverted for a certain time to facilitate removal of the deposits.Certaines des bouteilles seront stockées 10 ans pour obtenir leur pleine maturité… et faire augmenter leur prix de revente! / Some of the bottles will be stored for 10 years to reach full maturity…and increase their resale price!Cet empilage compte pas moins de 72 212 bouteilles. Deux cavistes mettent deux semaines à faire le travail. Les caves que nous avons visitées comptent au total 3 millions de bouteilles. / This stack has no less than 72,212 bottles. Two people take two weeks to do the job. The cellars we visited had a total of 3 million bottles.La dégustation tant attendue. Malheureusement, malgré que nous ayons visité la cave des grands crus, nous n’avons eu droit qu’à leur champagne de base…mais tout de même délicieux! / The well awaited tasting has finally started. Unfortunately, although we visited the cellars of their “grand cru”, we were treated to their basic champagne…but still delicious!Comme nous n’avons eu qu’un verre lors de la dégustation, nos esprits étaient encore clairs et nous avons pu résister à la tentation d’acheter une bouteille à 100 euros ou plus! / As we only had one glass during the tasting, our minds were still clear and we resisted the temptation to buy a bottle worth 100 euros or more!